Pharmaceutical therapies are known for the treatment of a large number of conditions. However, the development of pharmaceutical therapies typically involves significant investment and significant risk. A small number of discovered compounds (e.g. 1 in 10,000) becomes an approved pharmaceutical product or drug. Moreover, a significant amount of expenditure is required at early stages of drug development, when eventual viability of the drug cannot be guaranteed. For example, the development of a new drug may take around 10 years. Even once developed and approved for marketing, only a small proportion of drugs (e.g. 3 in 20) generate sufficient revenue for their development costs to be recovered.
Alternative therapies exist for the treatment of some conditions. For example, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) uses electrical impulses to stimulate nerves in order to relieve pain symptoms. However, the efficacy of TENS is disputed, and any claimed benefit is generally limited to a small number of chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
Further, the use of electrotherapy methods, for example cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) are also known. CES involves the application of a small pulsed electric current across a patient's head for treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia and stress. However, the safety and effectiveness of methods such as CES are also disputed.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide a system and method which could be applied to diagnosis and/or treatment of the human or animal body which did not suffer from one or more of the disadvantages of known therapeutic systems and methods.